“I always wanted a tattoo and design it myself, but never had the courage to do it!” Nicolas says. “But Woody can. He basically can be anything that I wanted to be and didn’t have either the time, patience or skills. And taking those pictures are the most fun.”

Photography has always a big part of Nicolas’ life. As a design manager in Minneapolis, he was used to directing photo shoots but wanted a more fun and hands on approach.

Nicolas discovered Woody in 2003 while shopping at IKEA. He noticed a bin full of wooden dolls and without question he realized he found his muse for his macro photography.

“I just looked at him and thought ‘Oh my god, I can actually use him as my model!’” Nicolas says. “The moment I picked him up and instantly knew I had something special.”

What excites Nicolas about Woody is the figure provides many challenges as well as possibilities. In the beginning, one of his biggest hurdles was how to convey emotion from something inanimate that has no facial expressions. Nicolas discovered he could achieve this with different body movements, colors, lighting and backgrounds. One of his favorite examples is Slow, where he created a sense of darkness and emotion with the simplest lighting and use of shadows.

Nicolas also loves to use Woody to represent visual metaphors for those situations humans can’t do.

“I think people would love to have a restart button in their lives,” Nicolas describes. “For example, if they’re going through a rough patch, wouldn’t it be great if they had a CONTROL Z or restart button? Woody can do that!”

At the end of the day, Nicolas wants people to laugh and be wow’d by what they see in Woody. To date, Nicolas has taken over 300 shots in the last six years and knows there’s still more Woody has left to do.

“People always ask me what will Woody do next?” Nicolas says. “And I always say, ‘You tell me!’ Woody represents all of us. And it’s exciting to know that every challenge I get, Woody is going to come to the rescue, bring my ideas to life that people will hopefully connect with. And I love it.”

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Grant Kaye has been surrounded by photography since he was a toddler. Born in Hawai'i and based in Truckee, California, he followed in his father’s footsteps and went into photography at an early age.

“Dad taught me how to use his medium format camera system, and eventually 35mm while I was in high school in the 1990s. I was always carrying around a camera in college and grad school, but I was mostly taking snapshots and not really seriously studying the art of landscape photography,” he said.

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